A new type of blood test might soon help parents like Chase’s and Gavin’s mom Amie Jones learn earlier if their children suffer from autism.

“They try to figure out what causes autism, but I had these kids back-to-back with similar pregnancies, so I don’t know,” Jones said. “People beat themselves up about what they could have done better, but as long as you just try to be as healthy as possible while you’re pregnant, there’s not a whole lot you can do to keep it from happening.”

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects about one in 50 U.S. children ages 6 to 17. Currently, it is diagnosed through impaired social interaction and a lack of verbal and nonverbal communication skills as well as repetitive behavior.

The average age a child is diagnosed with autism is 4.

But Emory University researchers in Atlanta and 20 universities nationwide recently joined clinical trial centers to evaluate a blood test that could make autism diagnoses even earlier, as young as 12 months to 2 years old.

Diagnosing children early means parents can get autistic children into treatments earlier, giving those children a leg up in learning to cope with the disorder.

“For children with autism, routines tend to stick and become ingrained to the point where parents and caregivers cannot change the routines,” said Michael Morrier, assistant director of the Emory Autism Center. “If we can get kids into treatment while those routines are still normal and teach them how to be more flexible, we’ll be able to stop some of those behaviors before they can develop into problem behaviors.”

At the Emory Autism Center, Morrier performs autism assessments on children referred to the center for developmental evaluations. If the children are thought to fall under the category Pervasive Developmental Disorder/Not Otherwise Specified (PDD/NOS), or are diagnosed with autism, staff seek permission to draw blood to be examined by researchers.

Those researchers then look at the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and see if they can find differences in children diagnosed with PDD/NOS and autism and those who aren’t.

“One of the reasons they are trying to do that is because research shows that the younger children get diagnosed and get into treatment, the better their outcome will be,” Morrier said. “With this test we would be able to watch kids whose results show they may be at risk for autism and get them into treatment as soon as we see behaviors that are linked to autism.”

Jones and her husband, Chris, were alerted that Chase might have autism when he was 19 months old.

The couple took Chase to see their regular pediatrician in Athens and were told Chase was fine. But Amie said their gut told them something might be wrong.

After two weeks debating what they should do, they made an appointment with an Atlanta-based developmental pediatrician, who diagnosed Chase as PDD/NOS.

Once he was diagnosed, Chris said he and Amie didn’t try to fight it and began enrolling him in treatment programs.

“I’ve seen parents who fought it and were in denial, and I understand it, but we didn’t fight it ... because we would have lost all of that time to work with him,” Chris said.

Today, Chase has a schedule that rivals some adults.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays he attends an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) preschool in Monroe and participates in the Pediatric Exercise and Motor Development Clinic (PEMDC) at the University of Georgia on Tuesdays. He also has speech and occupational therapy on Thursdays and hippotherapy at Butterfly Dreams Farms in Watkinsville on Fridays.

Amie and Chris also do ABA therapies with Chase at home.

Chase is considered to have mild to moderate autism and he has made steady improvements since seeking treatment. He’s speaking in more multiple-word sentences, has better motor skills and follows directions better.

But Amie stresses that those improvements depend on an entire team of people.

“You have to interact with Chase because he would sit on his iPad for 12 hours a day if you let him,” she said. “You have to draw him out and work with him, and consistency is really important.”

Amie said she feels like a blood test could be a helpful tool for parents who struggle to recognize autism as it could offer more clarity than current behavioral tests.

“I feel like we’re obligated to give these kids a little more help so they can go out into the world and know how to navigate it, and then they can be whatever they want to be,” she said. “Parents who ignore it and don’t get their child involved in therapies might put their children at a disadvantage.”